


everything

by LiveLaughLovex



Series: nothing half so pleasant [1]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Episode: s09e12 Ka Hauli O Ka Mea Hewa 'ole He Nalowale Koke, Gen, Spoilers for s09e12 Ka Hauli O Ka Mea Hewa 'ole He Nalowale Koke
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-12
Updated: 2019-01-12
Packaged: 2019-10-08 18:18:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17391284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiveLaughLovex/pseuds/LiveLaughLovex
Summary: After learning her friend's daughter has been involved in a car accident, Kono Kalakaua rushes home to Hawaii and realizes some very important things along the way.





	everything

**Author's Note:**

> "Family is not an important thing. It's everything." - Michael J. Fox

The six hours it took for Kono Kalakaua to arrive in Hawaii after getting that call from Steve McGarrett felt more like six years. She hated every moment of it, hated the very idea of being up in the air when Danny’s little girl was thousands of miles away, fighting for her life in some strange operating room. It was enough to make Kono sick to her stomach, which, considering what she’d spent the majority of the past two years dedicating her time to, was rather impressive.

Steve hadn’t known much when he’d called. She was pretty sure he’d done it out of pure instinct, so used to calling her and Chin in during times of crisis after doing so for nearly seven years that he hadn’t even really thought about it. So, when she touched down in Honolulu and arrived at the hospital, all she knew for sure was that Grace had been in an accident on a back road with another girl riding in the seat next to her, and that they were both in critical condition.

Danny and Rachel were both sitting in the waiting room when Kono pushed her way through to the ICU. The hopeless looks her close friend and his ex-wife sported were enough to make her heart drop into her stomach. The only thing preventing a full-blown panic attack was the knowledge that Steve would’ve found a way to get ahold of her if things had truly taken a turn for the worst.

Rachel saw her first, as she was sitting on the side of the room that faced the entrance. She said something to Danny, and the Jersey native was quickly on his feet and making his way outside to wrap Kono in the tightest hug she’d ever been part of.

“Hey, Danny,” she mumbled once he’d pulled away, flashing him a sad smile. “How’re you two doing? How’s Gracie?”

“She’s, uh, still in critical condition,” Danny informed her, his voice shaking slightly as he uttered the words. The dark circles beneath his eyes suggested he’d been awake since the moment he learned his daughter was missing. “There’s something going on with her skull. Uh, some sort of fracture? I don’t – I didn’t really listen to what the doc was saying after she told me my kid was going to need surgery, you know? And now there’s, uh, been a complication. Her brain’s hemorrhaging. They’re waiting it out, but they don’t – they don’t know if it’s going to fix itself or not.”

“Oh, my God,” Kono breathed, shaking her head and closing her eyes in an attempt not to let the tears gathering there trail down her cheeks. “Danny, I am – I am so sorry.”

“Yeah.” Danny cleared his throat. “What are, uh, how’d you find out so fast?”

“Steve called me as soon as he found out himself,” Kono explained. “I told my boss he’d have to cope without me this week, then hightailed my ass to the airport and bought a ticket for the first flight here.” She shrugged when Danny’s eyes widened at her explanation. “Come on, brah. Thousands of miles apart or not, you’re still family. So is that little girl in there. Nowhere else I’d be.”

“Thank – thank you.” Danny stumbled over the words, but they were still filled with gratitude.

“Of course,” Kono murmured. “So. What can I do to help? Is there anyone I need to be kicking the crap out of? Anyone whose door could do with some knocking down? Because I’ve learned some new moves during my time away, and I’m open to using, oh, any of them.”

“You’re a great aunt, Kono,” Danny informed her earnestly. “Both my kids are – they’re so lucky to have you.”

“Yeah, well, I consider myself pretty lucky to have them, too,” she replied honestly. “Seriously, Danny. What do you need from me right now?”

“I don’t know,” Danny sighed. “My head’s all over the place, you know?”

“Understandable. What about McGarrett?” she suggested. “Does he need help with anything?”

“No,” Danny sighed. “He’s got enough backup for the moment. He’s with Lou, and I already know that sending all three of you after the guy responsible for this would result in a homicide. Hospital bills are expensive. I don’t exactly have bail money.”

Kono scoffed quietly at that, amusement shining in her eyes for the first time since she’d arrived. “That they are,” she agreed. “Okay. I’ll wait out the doctors with you and Rachel, then, if that’s okay?”

“Yeah. Please. We need to talk to someone other than each other, or we might end up trying to kill each other in a hospital waiting room, which – well, it wouldn’t be good.”

“No. It wouldn’t.” Kono glanced over at Rachel, her heart squeezing sympathetically at the broken look on the other woman’s face. “Have the two of you eaten since you got here?”

“I have,” Danny told her. “Kamekona and Flippa brought food by earlier, but Rachel – she couldn’t bring herself to eat.”

“Okay. Well, is there anything that might make her more willing to eat? Any special place?” She nodded in the other woman’s direction. “I mean, Danny, she looks miserable, so I’ll fly in pizza from Jersey and foot the bill myself if it’ll get her to eat _something_.”

Danny chuckled quietly at that, and Kono felt relief that she’d at least been able to bring him some sort of amusement, even if it was technically at her own expense. “I don’t think you need to do anything that drastic. There is a pizza place near here that she likes, though. Uh, Sophie’s, I think it’s called?”

“I know the place,” she assured him. “Text me her order, all right? I’ll be back before you know it.”

“What if she still refuses to eat?” Danny called after her.

“Then there’ll be more pizza for Gracie when she wakes up,” she answered confidently. She shook her head at the hopeless look on her friend’s face. “Because she’s _going_ to wake up, Danny. All right? Anything else is just – it’s unacceptable.”

“Hey, Kono?” Danny called when she’d turned around to head for the door yet again.

“Yeah?” she asked, spinning back to face him.

“Thanks again. You know, for coming all this way.” He cleared his throat. “Means a lot to us. I know it’ll mean a lot to Grace, too.”

“It’s like I said, Danny. Nowhere else I’d be.”

-o-o-o-o-o-

Grace did wake up, and they all shed more than a few relieved and thankful tears the moment they walked into the room and saw her eyes open. Eventually, the teenager grew tired again, and, deciding it best to give the family a bit of time to themselves, everyone other than Danny, Rachel, and Charlie ducked out.

Kono ended up walking to the parking lot with Steve at her side. “I hear that you’re the one who got to talk to the guy who did this to them,” she commented as they boarded the elevator. “Please tell me you broke some bones.”

“Unfortunately, I did not,” Steve informed her regretfully. “I did, however, take him on the most terrifying ride of his life in the car he used to do it. I, uh, was going about eighty. Zip-tied his seatbelt before he got in. Threatened to send him straight through the windshield. You ask me, that would’ve been letting him off easy. What he did…” The naval officer shook his head angrily.

“Yeah,” Kono agreed. “You got him, though, Steve. He’s going to rot in jail, and then he’s going to rot in hell. A lot of little girls are going to be safer at night because of what you and your team did today.”

“Hm,” Steve murmured in agreement. “You know, I can’t say I’m used to that, yet. Can’t say I exactly enjoy it, either. You calling the team _mine_ instead of _ours_. Danny and I, we’ve both really missed you and Chin since you left.”

“Yeah,” Kono replied quietly. “I’ve really missed all three of you, too. Missed Five-O, also, but to a lesser degree. When I worked for you, there was a break between all the completely horrific cases, you know? The ones involving crimes against girls, against kids in general. But with this task force – it’s all day, every day. I’m pretty sure I haven’t slept through the night in about eighteen months. The details stick with me whenever I even try to close my eyes.”

“Yeah? That the breaking point for you and Adam?” Steve asked curiously, following her from the elevator and out into the parking lot. He held up a hand when she spun to shoot him a questioning look. “I swear I’m not judging, Kono. I really do just want to know.”

“The divorce was the result of a lot of things,” she admitted after a few moments of silence. “It wasn’t just about the task force. But, yeah, there were some things that probably wouldn’t have happened if we’d stuck around. At the end of the day, though, I don’t think it really would’ve mattered where we were. Some things just happen.”

“I really am sorry about the two of you, Kono,” Steve said earnestly, his dark blue eyes wide and honest as they met hers. “I know how you felt about him. How you probably still _do_ feel about him.”

“Yeah,” Kono sighed. “I loved him for a long time, and a part of me always will, but…” She shook her head. “There at the end, he deserved a lot more than what I was offering. You know how you used to tell me not to let the job change me? I don’t think I ever figured out that it could change me without me even knowing. Not until Adam started asking about kids and I realized I wasn’t so sure I still wanted them.”

Steve reached out and gently grabbed her arm to halt her just next to his truck. “What do you mean?”

“I work with kids all day, every day now, Steve,” she reminded him. “Kids who’ve been beaten and hurt in the most awful ways. And I’ve realized that every single set of parents I’ve met have one thing in common. They all thought their kids were going to be safe. But, you know, they still end up on our victims’ board. Dealing with that, day in and day out? It doesn’t really make me trust the world I’d be bringing my own kids into.”

“So, what?” Steve asked, arching a brow. “You and Adam got divorced because you weren’t sure you wanted kids anymore?”

“Adam and I got divorced because I wasn’t the woman he _married_ anymore,” she corrected him. “And I am never going to be that woman again, and pretending that I could change back into her one day? It wouldn’t have been fair. Not to me, and _especially_ not to him.”  

“I think you’re being a little hard on yourself,” he informed her wryly. “You’re _Kono Kalakaua_. You can do anything you put your mind to.”

“Yeah. I don’t think that part of me survived the transition, either.” She glanced away with a guilty shake of her head. “Those kids in there? _Danny’s_ kids? I’ve missed out on so much of their lives since I left, and it’s all my fault. I haven’t reached out like I should’ve. I know I said before I left that we weren’t doing enough. This, though? It’s too much. I honestly have no idea how some people dedicate their entire careers – their entire _lives_ – to working cases like this and don’t end up shooting every suspect they meet in the face. I have even more problems understanding how they’re able to go home to their kids at night and act like everything’s just fine.”

“Yeah, Kono,” Steve disagreed. “You do. Because you’ve done the same thing to keep Gracie and Charlie and Sara out of the loop on certain things. When kids are involved, lying’s sometimes much better than telling the truth.”

“In our line of work, one could argue that lying’s _always_ much better than telling the truth, _especially_ when kids are involved,” Kono muttered in response.

“Yeah,” Steve agreed quietly, smiling sadly at her. “They could. And they’d be right. Protecting your kids from what’s going on in the world is the priority in some situations.” He cleared his throat and glanced around the parking lot. “Did you rent something, or?”

“No,” Kono admitted. “I caught a cab at the airport, came straight here.”

 “Okay,” Steve replied. “Well, would I be correct in assuming that also means you have nowhere to stay?”

Kono winced. “I didn’t exactly think about much more than getting to Hawaii after we hung up.”

“That’s – okay,” Steve said, shaking his head with a wry smile. “I don’t blame you for that. Come on. Get in the truck. I’ll give you a ride to my place; you can stay in Mary’s old room as long as you need, all right?”

“Okay,” Kono replied softly. “Thanks, Steve.”

“Of course,” he said, waving away her thanks with that same kind smile. “It’s not like I’m going to let you check into one of the sleazy motels in this area. I mean, no matter what, we’re still ‘ohana, right?”

“Yeah,” she agreed as she climbed into the cab of his truck. “Always.”

-o-o-o-o-o-

It took a while for Grace to be released from the hospital, since it turned out that skull fractures were actually pretty serious. Kono stuck around the entire time, dropping by every day to visit with the young girl, and she was always amazed by the light shining in the teenager’s eyes, as if what’d happened to her had not done a thing to diminish her joy. Kono was relieved every time she saw that look in Grace’s eyes. It proved to her just how strong the girl truly was.

Steve was the one who suggested the party at Danny’s house. Kono showed up early to help set up and decorate, meaning that, for the first time since serving him with divorce papers, she was in the same room as her ex-husband.

Adam didn’t say much of anything at first, although that might’ve been because he was as aware as she was of the watchful eye their Navy friend was keeping on them from the next room over. Kono didn’t really know _why_ Steve seemed to be preparing himself to break up a fistfight, but she supposed she was grateful for it, regardless.

Eventually, she and Adam were left alone, as everyone else suddenly – and rather conveniently – found other things to do. Still, it took about five minutes for the man to clear his throat and finally speak to her about something other than the thumbtacks they’d used to hang up the banners and drawings Charlie had made for his sister.

“It’s been a while,” he said, so awkwardly that she couldn’t help but smile at least a little.

“Yeah,” she agreed quietly. “It has. How’ve you been, Adam?” She winced as she realized just what it was she had asked. “I mean – I don’t…” She trailed off, shrugging her shoulders. “Oh, what the hell? Sure. Let’s just go with that, because I’m clearly not going to come up with anything better.”

Adam chuckled softly at that, unable to stop himself from teasing her gently. “You’ve always had such a way with words.”

“Yeah, well,” Kono sighed. “I’m out of my element. It’s not like there’s a Book for Dummies that covers this situation.”

“No. I don’t imagine they would.” Adam hesitated for a few seconds before speaking again. “Could I have done anything?” he asked desperately. “To keep it from happening? Was there something I should have said, or…”

“No,” she murmured, shaking her head negatively. “No, Adam, there was nothing you could’ve done. What happened – it wasn’t your fault. It was mine. I made a lot of decisions about my life without including you, and I just let that gap between us get larger and larger, doing nothing to repair it. It’s not on you. I’m the one who chose to shut you out of what I was going through. If anyone’s to blame, it’s me.”

“I don’t think we need to toss around blame, Kono,” he assured her. “We did our best, right? We did the best we could, and it just – it didn’t work out. It’s not anyone’s fault. Sometimes, things just work out the way they do.” He smiled sadly. “And, in our case, that means that things don’t work out at all.”

“Yeah.” Kono sighed. “I really am sorry, Adam.”

“I’m not,” he declared. “Well, maybe about how everything ended up, but… I don’t regret a second of the time I’ve spent with you, Kono. I never will.”

“Yeah. Me too.” Kono cleared her throat and glanced away with a wry laugh. “It’s okay, McGarrett,” she called, raising her voice slightly. “And anyone else who might be listening. We didn’t kill each other. See?”

“How did you know anyone was on the other side of that wall?” Adam murmured as Steve and Lou made sheepishly made their way from the next room and approached the former couple.

“It’s a detective thing,” Kono murmured back. “You’ll pick up on it soon enough.”

-o-o-o-o-o-

“So, Detective Kalakaua,” Steve murmured later that evening, making his way out onto the deck that Danny and Rachel had since vacated with two drinks in tow, “I can’t help but notice that you’re hiding away from the rest of the group. What’s going on?”

Kono murmured her thanks as she accepted the plastic cup he extended in her direction, then released a heavy sigh. “I don’t know. I just…” She shook her head with a humorless laugh. “I didn’t even know Gracie had taken her driving test yet, Steve. I mean, you call me and tell me this kid that – that I’ve always thought of as family is in the hospital, fighting for her life, and that was the first thing that came to my mind. I didn’t even know, because I didn’t even bother to _ask_. God, I’ve got to be the worst aunt _ever_.”

“No, no, I’m sure someone else out there has already claimed that title,” Steve rushed to assure her. “You’ve been busy, Kono. Gracie gets that. Charlie, too. They know how important what you’re doing is. I mean, they don’t know all the details, of course, but Danny tells them about it sometimes. He tells them how proud he is of you.” He reached over with his free hand to chuck her gently under the chin. “So do I.”

“Yeah.” Kono smiled sadly. “Thanks, but that’s not really what I’m getting at here.” She cleared her throat, then admitted, “I went to Duke the other day, while everyone else was at the hospital. I asked him if there were any detective positions the department needed to fill. It turns out that there are.”

“What does – what do you mean?” Steve questioned, obviously confused.

“Our friend’s little girl almost died, Steve,” she reminded him. “And it took me six hours to get here. I didn’t know anything for _six hours_ , and it was one of the worst things I’ve ever experienced. I’m done with missing out on things. The only way I can stop missing out on things is to stop running away from what matters, so.” She smiled over at him. “I’m joining HPD’s Organized Crime task force. Well. Actually, that’s not true. Their sergeant just retired, and they don’t have a replacement, so I’m _running_ HPD’s Organized Crime task force. I start on Monday.”

Steve’s shock wore off slowly. As soon as what she was implying finally set in, though, his entire face lit up with his grin. “You’re coming home?”

“Yeah,” she murmured, laughing as she was pulled into a tight hug. She sighed as she returned it just as fiercely. “I’m coming home.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> The summary of this story could also read, "I try to write Kono into every episode ever because of how much I miss her." In fact, that'd probably be more honest.


End file.
